My situation...?s about collection tactics??

[eddiep]

bigboy
this was a collection agency that called my sister in law, not chase. I gave my attorney's name and phone number to chase three weeks ago. since then they have apparently sent my account to Creditor's Interchange for collection. I had not given CA my attorney's name because they did not contact me and I had no idea that they were collecting for Chase until my sister in law got the call from them.

[eddiep]

I know it could be a mistake but...they only got the last name and state right. The message left was "Ann" (her name) we are calling to collect a debt etc. She called them back giving them her name and the reference number. When she spoke to them, they acted like it was her debt, telling her that she owed them this money, how much and asked how much she could pay on it today. She told them that she has never had an account with chase and that this must be a mistake. Then the CA asked her if she lived at (our address) when she said no the CA said oh I'm sorry we are trying to get in touch with eddiep and asked if she knew how to contact me. I'm sorry I don't think that was a mistake. If they did a search with my name and address they would have gotten my phone number, our number is listed and we have had the same address and phone number for 13 years. And if they are making random calls they should make sure that the person they are talking to is the debtor before they give out the balance due.

[amjo30]

state laws

I found this link where you can lookup your state laws.

http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debt_statelaws.html

[eddiep]

Well the original posted asked:

Hi all,
Bottom line, what is all of your experiences with how soon:

a) they will take legal action and
b) will they contact others even if I am answering the phone?

Would they dare call neighbors or other family members so soon, even if I am answering their calls every other day and telling them that I am unemployed which is why I can't pay right now? Plus do they actually harass them or just call them once to verify my whereabouts??

I have pretty exceptional account standing with all of them. Should I ask for a payment plan and if so will they ask for my expenses/income in writing? I was thinking if I told them that I could pay each $100 a month, then get through the next month, that would only put me 60 days out at my time of filing.

My cards are with:

Chase/FIA card services/BankOne around $16,000
.

And my answer to the question was yes they can contact familly members and in my case they took it too far. This is something that I find very upsetting and embarrasing and apparentlly the original poster was concerned about family and neighbors knowing their personal business too.


This was my experience and a concern of mine and others on this website. And I was hoping to get some consructive advice or feedback (which I did) about how I should handle this. I think everyone here on this site have enough stress in their lives and do not need to have other members or mentors being judgmental about what we find relevent.

I thought this was a place we could share our experiences and concerns.

[OhioFiler]

Is this directed at me?

Did you have to ask?

[amjo30]

BigBoy, I am not sure if you maybe misunderstood why we are asking about what a creditor can and shouldn't be doing to consumers. We are not trying to sue or seek any damages from the collectors. Many creditors take their collection actions too far and as consumers we have a right to be treated with respect and dignity. It appears you strongly favor creditors and not consumers. Many of us, like myself, have to file bk due to rising cost, and unforseen situations. We also come to this site to be more educated as well. I am thankful for the many suggestions and comments here.

[catleg]

BigBoy, I am not sure if you maybe misunderstood why we are asking about what a creditor can and shouldn't be doing to consumers. We are not trying to sue or seek any damages from the collectors. Many creditors take their collection actions too far and as consumers we have a right to be treated with respect and dignity. It appears you strongly favor creditors and not consumers. Many of us, like myself, have to file bk due to rising cost, and unforseen situations. We also come to this site to be more educated as well. I am thankful for the many suggestions and comments here.

Don't jump to conclusions, BB is a good guy and the real deal, he has a deep understanding of this stuff. What he tells you is not in any way judgemental or meant to intimidate you, they are simply the facts or conclusions based on his experiences.

That's a hazard of forums, you have to do your due diligence just like anywhere else. At least you're anonymous when you make a fool out of yourself, as I have done and we all have done. It's just a hazard of participating in life.

[2Bshinyandnew]

BigBoy, I am not sure if you maybe misunderstood why we are asking about what a creditor can and shouldn't be doing to consumers. We are not trying to sue or seek any damages from the collectors. Many creditors take their collection actions too far and as consumers we have a right to be treated with respect and dignity. It appears you strongly favor creditors and not consumers. Many of us, like myself, have to file bk due to rising cost, and unforseen situations. We also come to this site to be more educated as well. I am thankful for the many suggestions and comments here.

I didn't understand that Original Creditors were not bound by FDCPA when I first started posting here. As I have said in the past, it was a tough pill to swallow. See my post here: http://www.bkforum.com/showpost.php?...07&postcount=8

There is so much to learn!

[BigJohn]

I didn't understand that Original Creditors were not bound by FDCPA when I first started posting here. As I have said in the past, it was a tough pill to swallow. See my post here: http://www.bkforum.com/showpost.php?...07&postcount=8

There is so much to learn!

Original Creditors aren't bound by the FDCPA but it doesn't mean you have to take their threats, vile language etc. If I talked to you the way some of these people talk to you and you feel I had crossed the line (harrassment, threats, intimidation) then you might seek relief by calling the police, filing an Injunctiion for harrassment, etc. against me. But people don't realize the same laws apply to original creditors, they are not god. They have absolutely no right to walk over another person just like I have no right to walk all over you. That is something we forget. As debtors we feel we have to take their abuse and we don't.

[amjo30]

I did receive a response from the FDCPA and my case has been forwarded to my states attorney general. This person used their personal cell phone and constantly called my house and personal phones without identifying themselves or who they were. He also kept calling and hanging up. I think this is on the lines of harrasement and I have the phone records to show the multiple times he has called. The branch manager was upset because we decided not to come in and restart the personal loan. They wanted us to start over with the payments by closing out one loan and restarting another. We know we can't afford to do this so chose not to start over. We tried this before, but only fell behind again.

[BigJohn]

If I called you and refused to identify who I was and I also keep calling and hanging up, you would call that harrassment. If I breathed deeply into the phone, you might think I was a pervert also. These people only make about $9.00 an hour. Can I say more?

[2Bshinyandnew]

Original Creditors aren't bound by the FDCPA but it doesn't mean you have to take their threats, vile language etc. If I talked to you the way some of these people talk to you and you feel I had crossed the line (harrassment, threats, intimidation) then you might seek relief by calling the police, filing an Injunctiion for harrassment, etc. against me. But people don't realize the same laws apply to original creditors, they are not god. They have absolutely no right to walk over another person just like I have no right to walk all over you. That is something we forget. As debtors we feel we have to take their abuse and we don't.

I wholeheartedly agree...I did not see anyone on this thread saying it is right or debtors should just "take it". Somewhere along the way on this thread, someone mentioned taking "action" against a "biggie" creditor and another poster pointed out that the OC are not bound by FDCPA. Maybe posters emotions are reacting to the bits of info recieved here, so that when info is offered, it is taken in a defensive manner. Some may have trouble expressing themselves in a forum the same way they can in real life, the emotion or expression is lost in the writing. Either way, I honestly don't see anyone posting here that is creditor friendly, or believes a debtor should just take abuse. The fact is, OC are not bound by FDCPA.


For example, Lets say if I have a problem with my neighbor making noise late at night, and I believe I have a legitimate gripe that the neighbor may be violating some ordinance or law. So I go to a forum called Noisyneighborsforum.com and post about my situation. A well meaning poster replies, "that is wrong and you need to file a report according to the Federal Laws Against Noisy Neighbors Act, go to this link and do that". If that information is not correct, or is 1/2 right, do we just let it go? What if in the State of Whatever State they have codified laws that need to be followed first? Do I keep the correct information to myself?

This is an interactive forum, and people should be able to debate and discuss, it would hardly be the active forum it is if each question was answered "go see the stickies" and "go ask an attorney", BUT writing and posting is time consuming too, and perhaps it is time constraints that prevent posters from writing long, detailed, politically correct responses. I have had my share of collector horror stories, OC and CA, and have posted about them as well. The bottom line the way I see it is FDCPA won't help with an OC. Maybe something else can, but FDCPA isn't it. Stating this does NOT mean I am creditor friendly or believe debtors should have to take abuse. It is just a statement of information.

[BigJohn]

The problem, as I see it, is that some believe that if the original creditor is hounding them, they have no rights. With a collector, some claim they have very little as far as rights are concerned. That is far from the truth. If somebody is harrassing you to no end, just because they are an original creditor or a collection agency doesn't mean you are not protected from them.

[BigJohn]

Well John; I don't disagree but its a lot more about it being state specific. In California you have the most power and Oregon also gives some protection, but here in WA my only recourse in to complain the the AG's office. I suppose I could if I wanted to bear the cost file a suit against a creditor or the company but since there are not any laws that give me that right if its an OC (and in WA state a JDB is considered an OC, isn't the lovely!) those law are on the book for the AG's office as enforcement tools. As I previously posted in another thread, I can't even get an anti-harassment order since they are called "protection orders" in this state and I have to show good cause to believe I am going to be harmed. Tough to prove that in this case I would think.

So, yes I am sure in some areas people have a lot more power against an OC than in other area. But the basis of what we mostly try to deal with on here is the FDCPA. When it starts getting state specific, then I don't think it works well in this type of forum.

I don't think your State is as backwards as you imply. If I go to my store tomorrow and call you several times for the pure purpose of harrassing you, are you going to tell me there is nothing that can be done?

[BigJohn]

Not really, what happens is this, I would have to notify the phone company. They in turn would "trap" the number when I enter a code after I get a call from you and they then "count" the number of times you call. If it is "excessive" based on a criteria they have established they will them work with law enforcement to deal with it. On my end the local police have one mode, file a police report over the phone, get a case number and then its up to me to get a new phone number. Only if you are being a stalker or life threatening does it then raise to the level of a crime.

You know John what you seem to be missing is that, this is not the same as a woman being stalked, this is not the same as offenses that are truly criminal or that even start to raise to the level of being criminal.

Why don't you go read up on how many women get "harassing" phone calls from ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands and they will tell you how little the police or the phone company will do to help. So if you think that me as a male reporting that I am being "harassed" by a bill collector is really going to get any attention I think you are very mistaken.

The reason I have a good deal of familiarity with this is that we once had a person keep calling our house. We suspected it was the nut job neighbor lady across the street, since it would only occur when we were home. It didn't take much to realize the person doing this must be able to see our house and know when we are home. Not to mention her husband worked a lot out of town and when he was around the calls never happened.

We called the police who said we need to call the phone company and they would have us do the "trap-trace" and if the phone company felt there was a problem they would forward it on to the local police. We paid for and set this up with the phone company. The phone company then called us a few weeks later and said they felt we knew the person doing this since there are calls from this person where we talked to them and did not "trace" the line even though when she called it showed up as a blocked number. So, they had an answer and that was to sell us more service and pay for blocked caller rejection or of course we can change our phone number.

So that was the end of it, no police, no charges, no crime and in the end I paid for it since my phone bill went up to block numbers.

Pretty much follows what is written here:
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs3-hrs2.htm#1

The women I have talked to that got harrassing calls from seperated husbands, ex-boyfriends, etc. were able, in many cases, to put a stop to it by gettig a restraining order or Injunction for Harrassment.